God, Hitler posters open Can Of Worms

Can of Worms: Before and after of advertising campaigns that were banned and then given the green light by APN

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A poster campaign posing topical questions about Hitler and God to promote a new TV show has been rejected by advertising giant APN.

Can Of Worms, hosted by Ian "Dicko" Dickson and created by Andrew Denton's production company, will air on Channel Ten next month, but APN has refused to approve the program's artworks for bus posters across Australia.

The program claims to "do away with political correctness" as it engages a panel and studio audience on the contentious issues of the day.

The artworks pose five different questions, including: "Is it wrong to tell your kids there is no God?" and "Is it wrong to dress up as Hitler for a fancy dress party?".

The show has been met with controversy ahead of its July launch, much to the surprise of the network and the program's creators.

"[APN] came back to us in the middle of the week and said there was a problem with the artwork," Channel Ten spokeswoman Gabrielle Crittenden said.

"The same time as we had booked the APN advertisements, we'd also booked with radio, newspapers, magazines - all of those were fine."

Ms Crittenden says the network started to get mixed messages from the advertising giant in terms of what it would and would not allow.

For example, the artwork was approved by APN for train stations, but not for buses. The campaign was rejected in Western Australia, but parts of the campaign were allowed in other states.

She says some of the censored artwork has now been approved, but the rest is still outstanding.

"I must say, it got approved after a bit of pushback, and then what we did is we took the artworks, then we basically rejigged it with exactly the same copy, but we just had 'censored' over what we believed to be the offending work," Ms Crittenden said.

She says the only question deemed acceptable was: "Is it OK for parents to spy on their kids online?"

But the censorship of the posters could be seen as a blessing rather than a curse.

"I think [the censorship by APN] comes to the very issue of what this show is all about," Ms Crittenden said.

"This new program that we've put together is essentially about expressing your opinions on topical issues, once you strip away political correctness. The whole notion of saying that you can't even pose the question, it gets to the whole point of the program."

Despite the good press churned up, Channel Ten says it is genuinely surprised by APN's decision to reject the original posters.

"We asked for specific creative guidelines and we weren't given anything specific. What we were told is that they were unwilling to run anything that was 'too political, offensive or sexual in nature'," Ms Crittenden said.

The ABC contacted APN for comment but it has not returned calls.

Earlier this month advertising company Adshel reinstated a safe sex campaign for gay couples after it became clear a barrage of complaints about the ads were orchestrated by the Australian Christian Lobby.

The bus shelter poster campaign spruiking the message "rip and roll" features a gay couple hugging while holding a condom packet.

The offending ads were taken down from around Brisbane after 30 complaints were received.